The Saturn Nebula was the first discoveries of
William Herschel on September 7, 1782,
when he started his great survey.
This remarkable planetary nebula has its name from its appearance, which
resembles a faint suggestion of the planet Saturn with rings nearly edge-on
(Lord Rosse named it in the 1840s).
According to Admiral Smyth, the Saturn Nebula was one of Struve's nine
"Rare Celestial Objects."

While the Saturn nebula measures 36" in diameter, it has an extended halo
of about 100", according to the Sky Catalogue 2000.0.
Its central star is rather bright with mag 11.5.

The distance of the Saturn Nebula is not known very acurately. Hynes gives
2,400 light-years (adopted here), the Sky Catalogue 2000.0 about 2,900, and
Burnham adopts O'Dell's (1963) estimate of 3,900 ly.